So, there’s a little over 30,000 nonemployer firms with receipts of $1.2 billion in the Tri-Cities. That’s receipts – the total amount received from all sources with no costs or expenses subtracted – not the payroll. And $1.2 billion is a noteworthy piece of the regional Gross Domestic Product (GPD) or total economic output.

The nonemployer firm – a business where the owner is the only employee – with the largest receipts volume is in the Construction Labor Sector followed by the Real Estate.  When you look at the largest average volume per firm Wholesale Trade is at the top of the list followed by Real Estate.

Real Estate looms large in the nonemployer category as it does in the economy. The total receipts in the current report year were $200.3 million. The total sales volume for all residential sales in the same year was $1.03 billion.

The Census Bureau count of these nonemployer firms doesn’t tell us how many are the primary job of the owner and how many are part-time gigs. But the receipts per firm indicate some are side gigs or one of several revenue streams for the local entrepreneur.

Here’s how total receipts, and the average per firm, for those entrepreneurs looked across the region and in the region’s two metro areas.

Nonemployer businesses are the largest segment of local businesses and accounted for the employment of 30,455 in the most current Census Bureau count – 2016. Kingsport-Bristol had the most nonemployer firms 18,209. There were 12,236 in the Johnson City MSA.

Categories: ECONOMY